It is sad to see Southampton sink to this level. They had a long-term plan that seemed to work wonders and helped them survive the departures of top players every summer and even good coaches.

I hope they go back to the script and get things going again.

As for Mark Hughes? He ought to be damaged goods now. But he will find another team.

Mark Hughes: Southampton sack manager after eight months in charge

47 minutes ago From the section Southampton 873

Mark HughesHughes had a 13.6% win rate in the league at Southampton

Mark Hughes has been sacked as Southampton manager after eight months in charge.

The Saints, who drew with Manchester United in the Premier League on Saturday, are 18th in the table.

Southampton confirmed the move in a statement, adding: "The search for a new manager to take the club forward is already underway."

First-team assistant coach Kelvin Davis will take charge of the team for the game against Tottenham on Wednesday.

BBC Sport understands Southampton are set to approach former RB Leipzig manager Ralph Hasenhuttl about the manager's job. The 51-year-old Austrian has been out of work since leaving Leipzig in May.

Hughes, who also had a spell at the south coast club during his playing career, joined Southampton in March, two months after being sacked by Stoke City.

The club were one point above the relegation zone at the time and the 55-year-old led them to safety last season by securing two wins from their last four games.

However, they have struggled again this season and, across his spell, have won just three of their 22 league games.

Before the draw against Manchester United, Southampton were beaten 3-2 by relegation rivals Fulham and knocked out of the EFL Cup on penalties by Leicester.

Along with Hughes, assistant first-team manager Mark Bowen and coach Eddie Niedzwiecki have also left the club.

Did Twitter predict Mark Hughes' exit? It's tweets of the week

Analysis

Phil McNulty, BBC Sport chief football writer

Southampton's hierarchy were never going to make the same mistake as last season when they almost left it too late to sack Mauricio Pellegrino as they dropped towards relegation.

It meant added pressure on Mark Hughes, who presided over their survival, and his dismal win record of three wins from 22 league games made this decision inevitable.

Hughes has told regular hard luck stories this season but eventually the script becomes tired when performances, even though they were decent enough on occasions, simply do not get results.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but Southampton may now reflect on their decision to give Hughes a three-year contract in the afterglow of retaining their Premier League status, rather than thanking him for his efforts and returning to the drawing board.

Saints' vice-chairman Les Reed and technical director Martin Hunter have already gone and the sweep has continued with Hughes' sacking. These are changing times at St Mary's.

As for Hughes, it is hard to see where he will go next after successive sackings at Stoke and Southampton in so short a time.

He now joins other old managerial heads like Sam Allardyce, David Moyes and Alan Pardew on the margins.'Saints board only ones left to blame'

Adam Blackmore, sports editor of BBC Radio Solent, said Hughes "has paid the price for results", but he added "the problems that are afflicting Southampton at the moment cannot all be laid at his door".

"The football of late has been improving but individual defensive mistakes have riddled the season, and that opens up the whole debate about bad recruitment over a period of two years now," he explained.

"Hughes did well to keep them up last season, but after a summer of making signings that have deepened the squad, not improved the team, Saints have effectively damaged themselves by losing their golden touch in the transfer market, and not adding match-winners to a squad who narrowly avoided relegation last season.

"Saints fans have been crying out for a return to the high-tempo, high-pressing game that saw them get great success under Mauricio Pochettino and Ronald Koeman, and if as expected they appoint Ralph Hasenhuttl, the 'Alpen Klopp', later this week, they may get their wish.

"The Saints board need to get this one right, because from now, they themselves are the only ones left to blame for the club's current state."

A manager got sacked for relegating a team, two months later he gets a job with a team that is flirting with relegation... Pray what kind of cheap hashish are the board members of the hiring club smoking?

_________________"There is big pressure at this club as you cannot be like the manager at Arsenal and ask for five years to try and to win one trophy" - Jose Mourinho

.... I believe in God. I try to be a good man so He can have a bit of time to give me a hand when I need it - Jose Mourinho

A manager got sacked for relegating a team, two months later he gets a job with a team that is flirting with relegation... Pray what kind of cheap hashish are the board members of the hiring club smoking?

More importantly, how is it that a team that hired Pochettino, replaced him with Ronald Koeman and Claude Puel, end up with a Mark Hughes? Simply madness!

_________________Form is temporary; Class is Permanent! Liverpool, European Champions 2005.

We watched this very boring video, 500 times, of Sacchi doing defensive drills, using sticks and without the ball, with Maldini, Baresi and Albertini. We used to think before then that if the other players are better, you have to lose. After that we learned anything is possible – you can beat better teams by using tactics." Jurgen Klopp

A manager got sacked for relegating a team, two months later he gets a job with a team that is flirting with relegation... Pray what kind of cheap hashish are the board members of the hiring club smoking?

More importantly, how is it that a team that hired Pochettino, replaced him with Ronald Koeman and Claude Puel, end up with a Mark Hughes? Simply madness!

They have all these foolish people hanging around the powers that be waving the British flag... Their argument, there is nothing those foreign guys are doing that our own cannot do.

_________________"There is big pressure at this club as you cannot be like the manager at Arsenal and ask for five years to try and to win one trophy" - Jose Mourinho

.... I believe in God. I try to be a good man so He can have a bit of time to give me a hand when I need it - Jose Mourinho

A manager got sacked for relegating a team, two months later he gets a job with a team that is flirting with relegation... Pray what kind of cheap hashish are the board members of the hiring club smoking?

More importantly, how is it that a team that hired Pochettino, replaced him with Ronald Koeman and Claude Puel, end up with a Mark Hughes? Simply madness!

They seem to have thrown out their master plan which was working so well.

Hiring Mark Hughes was a stop-gap measure and the team responded to the change in managers. The mistake was signing Hughes to a 3-year contract.

_________________"The young Walt Disney was sacked because he lacked imagination. They advised Marilyn Monroe to become a secretary and Elvis to go back to driving a lorry."

A manager got sacked for relegating a team, two months later he gets a job with a team that is flirting with relegation... Pray what kind of cheap hashish are the board members of the hiring club smoking?

More importantly, how is it that a team that hired Pochettino, replaced him with Ronald Koeman and Claude Puel, end up with a Mark Hughes? Simply madness!

They seem to have thrown out their master plan which was working so well.

Hiring Mark Hughes was a stop-gap measure and the team responded to the change in managers. The mistake was signing Hughes to a 3-year contract.

They will be alright if they can stop making other teams stronger and keep their players.

_________________If Noah had been truly wise, he would have swatted those two flies. -- Helen Castle

A manager got sacked for relegating a team, two months later he gets a job with a team that is flirting with relegation... Pray what kind of cheap hashish are the board members of the hiring club smoking?

More importantly, how is it that a team that hired Pochettino, replaced him with Ronald Koeman and Claude Puel, end up with a Mark Hughes? Simply madness!

They seem to have thrown out their master plan which was working so well.

Hiring Mark Hughes was a stop-gap measure and the team responded to the change in managers. The mistake was signing Hughes to a 3-year contract.

They will be alright if they can stop making other teams stronger and keep their players.

You Soton had a grand master plan where they scouted at least 3 players for each position and also identified ideal managers from around the world. So it didn't matter whether they sold a player because they already had replacement options in the pipeline. It worked for them so well but it looks like they abandoned it along the way.

Other teams were bound to raid the brains behind the plan because it was very good.I hope they dust it off and revive it starting with the manager.

_________________"The young Walt Disney was sacked because he lacked imagination. They advised Marilyn Monroe to become a secretary and Elvis to go back to driving a lorry."

Steve Bruce spotted at the BP garage, holding the handle down till the tank runneth over. Better get on the road ol’ Bent Nose, once Professor Emeritus Samwell Socrates Allardyce, first of his name, is made aware of the opening, mandatory invite...it’s as good as gone.

There is nothing wrong with Southampton model, they were a selling team when Poch was there, they were selling when Koeman was there and when Puel was there and all these at least managed to do well and keep them in a reasonable position in the league.

Then they started aspiring beyond their reach with the firing of coaches when there was no need for it. Their trouble started with the firing of Puel, for the Spanish guy, who after his troubled reign was fired for another coach who had failure written all over.

When you operate such a model, you need stability and consistency not yoyo hirings. Between the Spaniard and Hughes they got themselves a nice boiling cauldron of trouble.

_________________"There is big pressure at this club as you cannot be like the manager at Arsenal and ask for five years to try and to win one trophy" - Jose Mourinho

.... I believe in God. I try to be a good man so He can have a bit of time to give me a hand when I need it - Jose Mourinho

There is nothing wrong with Southampton model, they were a selling team when Poch was there, they were selling when Koeman was there and when Puel was there and all these at least managed to do well and keep them in a reasonable position in the league.

Then they started aspiring beyond their reach with the firing of coaches when there was no need for it. Their trouble started with the firing of Puel, for the Spanish guy, who after his troubled reign was fired for another coach who had failure written all over.

When you operate such a model, you need stability and consistency not yoyo hirings. Between the Spaniard and Hughes they got themselves a nice boiling cauldron of trouble.

I just think they fired him cause they were embarrassed that he could draw with Mourinho

..... Arsenal for life !

_________________From this day forth, I stand by the entity that is ARSENAL.
I'm in despair when we lose, I rejoice when we win and I become emotional for all that happens in between
but may no one dare say I was not there when its all said and done - Globero

There is nothing wrong with Southampton model, they were a selling team when Poch was there, they were selling when Koeman was there and when Puel was there and all these at least managed to do well and keep them in a reasonable position in the league.

Then they started aspiring beyond their reach with the firing of coaches when there was no need for it. Their trouble started with the firing of Puel, for the Spanish guy, who after his troubled reign was fired for another coach who had failure written all over.

When you operate such a model, you need stability and consistency not yoyo hirings. Between the Spaniard and Hughes they got themselves a nice boiling cauldron of trouble.

I just think they fired him cause they were embarrassed that he could draw with Mourinho

..... Arsenal for life !

Exactly! Any coach that cannot deal with JM's Man U ought to be sacked!

_________________“We do not have natural disasters in Nigeria, the only disaster we have is human beings,”

There is nothing wrong with Southampton model, they were a selling team when Poch was there, they were selling when Koeman was there and when Puel was there and all these at least managed to do well and keep them in a reasonable position in the league.

Then they started aspiring beyond their reach with the firing of coaches when there was no need for it. Their trouble started with the firing of Puel, for the Spanish guy, who after his troubled reign was fired for another coach who had failure written all over.

When you operate such a model, you need stability and consistency not yoyo hirings. Between the Spaniard and Hughes they got themselves a nice boiling cauldron of trouble.

I just think they fired him cause they were embarrassed that he could draw with Mourinho

..... Arsenal for life !

Exactly! Any coach that cannot deal with JM's Man U ought to be sacked!

Ahem!!

Unai should be expecting a pink slip?

_________________If Noah had been truly wise, he would have swatted those two flies. -- Helen Castle

Solid manager...sufficient time to get them out of trouble. Should be an interesting one to watch...

_________________Form is temporary; Class is Permanent! Liverpool, European Champions 2005.

We watched this very boring video, 500 times, of Sacchi doing defensive drills, using sticks and without the ball, with Maldini, Baresi and Albertini. We used to think before then that if the other players are better, you have to lose. After that we learned anything is possible – you can beat better teams by using tactics." Jurgen Klopp